Door closer devices



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KENNETH JAMES PE Y BYWInAII HQJYL Dec. 8, 1970 PERRY DOOR CLOSER DEVICES Filed Oct. 28', 1968 Dec. 8, 1970 K. J. PERRY 3,545,030

' DOOR CLOSER DEVICES 7 Filed Oct. 28,1968 I 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR:

KENNETH JAMES PERRY United States Patent 3,545,030 DOOR CLOSER DEVICES Kenneth J. Perry, Leamington Spa, England, assignonto Dor-O-Matic (G.B.) Limited, Sydenham Industrial Estate, Warwickshire, England Filed Oct. 28, 1968, Ser. No. 771,019 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Nov. 3, 1967, 50,057/67; Feb. 1, 1968, 5,203/68 Int. Cl. Ef 3/20 US. Cl. 16-55 11 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Door closer devices wherein opening of the door is resisted by Spring pressure which constitutes energy storing means for closing the door and in which the closing is cushioned by a dashpot device. An auxiliary hydraulic dashpot device is provided for increasing resistance during the opening movement of the door, and it may be arranged to lock at a pre-determined position to prevent the door opening beyond a preset limit.

The invention relates to door closer devices of the type in which the opening of the door is resisted by spring pressure (which constitutes energy storing means for closing the door) and in which the closing is cushioned by a dashpot device. The present invention has for its object to provide an improvement in devices of this type.

According to the invention, a door closer of the type referred to is provided with an auxiliary dashpot device providing an increasing resistance to movement during the opening movement of the door. The auxiliary dashpot device may be arranged to lock at a predetermined position to prevent the door opening beyond a preset limit, and preferably includes at least one piston working in a hydraulic cylinder, there being a valve of variable resistance operative between the spaces on opposite sides of the piston. Said valve is preferably constituted by a tapered groove in the periphery of the piston or the internal wall of the cylinder of the auxiliary dashpot device. A spring is preferably provided to return the piston of the auxiliary dashpot device to its original position when the door is closed, and said piston is preferably provided with a check valve which can open to allow said piston to move freely to its original position when the door is closed.

According to a further aspect of the invention, a door closer device embodying the invention is preferably provided with a housing having a cavity opening from one side of said housing, a cam disposed within said cavity for acting on roller follower means carried by a slidable plate or plates also disposed within said cavity, a pair of parallel arms fixed relative to said slidable plate or plates and respective pistons connected to the extremities of said arms and operative in parallel cylindrical bores which extend longitudinally of the housing, from the cavity towards one end of the housing, said pistons being acted upon by springs which constitute the energy storing means for closing the door. The pistons are preferably provided with respective check valves which open during the door-opening movements to permit hydraulic fluid to flow freely through the pistons so that they have virtually unrestricted movement in the door opening direction. The pistons are also preferably provided with respective overload release valves which can open to allow the free flow of hydraulic fluid through the pistons if the door is forced shut. Two restrictor valves preferably provide restricted movement of the pistons in the door-closing direction, one of said valves being disposed in a passageway arranged to connect opposite sides of Patented Dec. 8, 1970 the pistons during the greater part of their door closing movement and the other of said valves being disposed in a passageway arranged to connect the opposite sides of said pistons during the latter part of their door-closing movement, the arrangement being such that the firstmentioned valve slows the closing rate of the door through the greater part of its movement by a determined extent and the other of said valves adjusts the final rate of closure of the door so that the door can have a somewhat accelerated latching to ensure that the closer will overcome the latch bolt. The pistons are preferably attached to the arms by means of pins which have been inserted through a hole extending through the housing diametrically of the cylindrical bores, and abutment members for the springs are preferably constituted by respective pairs of parallel pins inserted through the housing in positions straddling the arms. The housing is preferably an extrusion in which the cavity has been subsequently machined and the cylindrical bores have been finish machined.

In order that the invention may be fully understood and readily carried into effect, a preferred embodiment thereof will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:

FIG. 1 is a part-sectional view of a door closer device embodying the invention with a cover plate removed,

FIG. 2 is a sectional view on the line 2-2 in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a sectional view on the line 33 in FIG. 1, and

FIG. 4 is a scrap view, drawn twice full size, of a valve shown in FIG. 3.

Referring now to the drawings, a closer, which is intended to be fitted within the header bar of the door frame or sunk in the floor below the door, has a metal housing 10 from which projects an end portion of a shaft 12 adapted to be secured non-rotatably to a lever arm (not shown) which can be secured to the upper or lower surface of the door as the case may be. The shaft 12 is rotatably mounted in bearings 13, and a cam 14 which is secured upon said shaft within the housing is arranged to act against a spring-loaded mechanism so that when the door is opened, the springs of said mechanism are compressed and thus they constitute energy storing means for closing the door automatically.

In this particular arrangement, during an opening movement of the door the cam 14 acts on one or the other of a pair of roller followers 16 and 18 (depending on the direction in which the shaft is turned), the rollers being carried between a pair of plates 20 and 22 slidable longitudinally in the housing and said plates being slotted at 24 to allow them to slide relative to the shaft on which the cam is mounted and which extends through the slots. A further roller follower 17 is carried in a central position between the plates 20 and 22 and is acted upon by the cam when the door is being closed. The cam, slidable plates and rollers carried thereby are disposed within a cavity 26 which opens from one side of the housing. The cavity is enclosed by a cover plate 28 through which the shaft 12 extends. A yoke 31 having two parallel arms 30 and 32 is fixed between the slidable plates by means of screws 33, and the extremities of said arms are connected to respective pistons 34 and 36 operative in parallel cylindrical bores 38 and 40 which extend longitudinally of the housing, that is to say, from the cavity to one end of the housing. Respective compression springs 42 and 44 surround the arms of the yoke and extend between the pistons 34 and 36 and abutment members (which will be referred to presently) fixed with respect to the housing. The two compression springs resist the sliding movement of the plates 20 and 22 when the cam 14 is turned due to opening of the door (and thus constitute energy storing means) so that when the door is released said springs extend and in so doing they cause the plates to slide and one or other of the rollers 1-6 and 18 (whichever of these has caused the compression of the springs) to turn the cam and effect closure of the door. (The cam is, however, provided with recesses 46 and 48, constituting respective detents at positions which are engaged by the rollers, when the door is fully open in one direction or the other. Consequently, the door will be retained in a fully open position until pressure is applied to it to overcome the detent which has been engaged, and when this has been done, the springs can then take over to effect subsequent closure of the door).

The housing is completely filled with hydraulic fluid (which can be poured into it through a hole closed by a plug 11) and the two pistons are provided with re spective check valves 50- and 52 which open during the door-opening movement to permit the fluid to flow freely through the pistons so that they have virtually unrestricted movement in the door opening direction. Two restrictor valves 54 and 56, which provide restricted movement of the pistons in the door-closing direction, are provided in the housing and are disposed in passageways which are arranged to allow the flow of fluid from one side of each piston to the other. The restrictor valve 54 is disposed in a passageway 58 which is arranged to connect the opposite sides of said pistons during the greater part of their door-closing movement. The restrictor valve 56 on the other hand is disposed in a passageway 60 which is arranged to connect the opposite sides of said pistons during the latter part of their doorclosing movement, that is to say, during the last, say, of closing movement of the door. The first-mentioned of these restrictor valves is adjustable so that it slows the closing rate of the door, through a greater part of its movement, by a determined extent. The other of said valves is adjustable so that the rate of final closure of the door can be adjusted, and the arrangement is such that the door can have a somewhat accelerated latching to ensure that the closer will overcome the latch bolt. Referring in particular to FIG. 4, each restrictor valve comprises a control screw 53 extending through a bush 55rlocated in the housing. The control screw is adjustable relative to said bush and, its innermost end being tapered as shown and entering a hole of smaller diameter than itself which forms part of one of the passageways 58 and 60, operates in the manner of a needle valve.

The pistons 34 and 36 are provided with respective overload release valves 62 and 64 which can open to allow the flow of fluid if the door is forced shut. Consequently, no damage will result from the door being forced shut and in fact the device may be overridden if the normal rate of closure is too slow or in the event of panic or crush conditions, (that is to say, when the door has first to be shut before it can be opened by continuing its swing beyond the closed position).

The outer ends of the two cylindrical bores in which the pistons are slidable are sealed by means of respective screwthreaded plugs 66 and 68 where they emerge from one end of the housing. At the other end of the housing, screwthreaded holes coaxial with said bores extend through an end wall of the housing into the cavity in which are disposed the cam, the roller followers and the slidable plates on which said followers are carried. In these screwthreaded holes are secured screwthreaded adaptor portions of respective additional cylinders 70 and 72 which open from the cavity in the housing at their inner ends but which at'thcir outer ends are closed. Respective auxiliary pistons 74 and 76 which operate in said cylinders are acted upon by coil springs 78 located within said cylinders and abut against an adjacent end of the pair of slidable plates. (If the pistons were fixed to-said plates, the springs could be omitted from within the. cylinders.)

Each one of the auxiliary pistons has tapered fiat 80 formed on its cylindrical surface. This flat is deepest at the inner end of the piston (i.e. the end furthest from the slidable plates) and runs out part way along it. In the closed position of the door, the pistons largely project from their cylinders into the cavity in the housing, and the-cylinders are filled with hydraulic fluid which communicates with that in the housing by way of the flats. The arrangement is such that as the door is opened, the passages formed by the flats become progressively re duced in cross-section and at the fully open position of said door the passages are completely closed. The result is that the auxiliary pistons exercise a progressively increasing resistance to opening of the door and, when the door arrives at a fully open position, they virtually prevent further movement in the opening direction. This provides a back check for the door. (If the cylinders for the auxiliary pistons were capable of being axially adjusted, this-would provide a very simple method of adjusting the position at which the back check comes into effect.) As the door closes, check valves 82 in the auxiliary pistons open to allow said pistons to immediately follow up the return movement of the slidable plates.

It is a feature of the invention that the cavity in which the cam, the slidable plates and the rollers carried thereby are disposed is no larger than necessary to allow said plates to slide between their extreme positions and that the cover plate for enclosing said cavity is no bigger than necessary. Consequently, the part of the housing through which the parallel arms of the yoke extend is particularly slim and the whole device is of very neat appearance. This is partly due to the fact that it has been found possible to make the housing in the form of an extrusion of the cross-sectional shape shown in FIG. 3 so that after the extruded blank has been cut to length it has only been necessary to machine out the cavity, finish machine the parallel bores extending through the blank, and to drill the various passageways required. However some difliculty has been experienced in assembling the parts of the device within the housing, and for this reason the pistons are attached to the arms of the yoke by means of pins 84 which have been inserted through a hole extending through the housing diametrically of the cylindrical bores (the opposite ends of said hole having been subsequently closed by plugs 85) it having been found necessary to insert the arms from the cavity ends of said bores and the pistons from their outer ends. Similarly, it has been found necessary to insert respective pairs of parallel pins 86 through the housing, in positions straddling the arms of the yoke, to constitute the abutment members for the springs.

Various modifications may of course be made without departing from the scope of the invention, and it may be found preferable that the flats on the back check pistons should not run out entirely, thus avoiding a large build-up of pressure behind said pistons. The flats could in fact be formed parallel to the axes of the pistons to provide a resistance to opening of constant magnitude.

What is claimed is:

1. A door closer device provided with spring means for resisting opening of the door and for constituting energy storing means for closing the door, a dashpot device for cushioning the closure of the door, and an auxiliary dashpot device for providing an increasing resistance to movement during the opening movement of the door.

2. A door closer device according to claim 1, wherein the auxiliary dashpot device is arranged to lock at a predetermined position to prevent the door opening beyond a pre-set limit.

3. A door closer device according to claim 1, wherein the auxiliary dashpot device includes at least one piston working in a hydraulic cylinder, there being a valve of variable resistance operative between the spaces on opposite sides of the piston.

4. A door closer device according to claim 3, wherein the valve is constituted by a tapered groove in the periphery of the piston.

5. A door closer device according to claim 3, wherein a spring is provided to return the piston of the auxiliary dashpot device to its original position when the door is closed.

6. A door closer device according to claim 3, wherein the piston of the auxiliary dashpot device is provided with a check valve which can open to allow said piston to move freely to its original position when the door is closed.

7. A door closer device according to claim 1, provided with a housing having a cavity opening from one side of said housing; a slidable plate disposed within said cavity; roller follower means carried by said slidable plate; a cam for acting on said roller follower means; a pair of parallel arms fixed relative to said slidable plate; repective pistons connected to the extremities of said arms and operative in parallel cylindrical bores which extend longitudinally of the housing, from the cavity towards one end of the housing; and springs acting against said pistons to constitute the energy storing means for closing the door.

8. A door closer device according to claim 7, wherein the pistons are provided with respective check valves which open during the door-opening movements to permit hydraulic fluid to flow freely through the pistons so that they have virtually unrestricted movement in the door opening direction.

). A door closer device according to claim 7, wherein the pistons are provided with respective overload release valves which can open to allow the free How of hydraulic fluid through the pistons if the door is forced shut.

10. A door closer device according to claim 7, wherein two restrictor valves provide restricted movement of the pistons in the door-closing direction, one of said valves being disposed in a passageway arranged to connect opposite sides of the pistons during the greater part of their door-closing movement and the other of said valves being disposed in a passageway arranged to connect the opposite sides of said pistons during the latter part of their door-closing movement, the arrangement being such that the first-mentioned valve slows the closing rate of the door through the greater part of its movement by a determined extent and the other of said valves adjusts the final rate of closure of the door so that the door can have a somewhat accelerated latching to ensure that the closer will overcome the latch bolt.

11. A door closer device according to claim 7, wherein abutment members for the springs are constituted by respective pairs of parallel pins inserted through the housing in positions straddling the arms.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,222,709 12/1965 Ellis 1655 3,246,362 4/1966 Jackson 1651 DONALD A, GRIFFIN, Primary Examiner 

